


Io's mining conflict [EN]

by Loulou_from_TRAPPIST



Category: TerraGenesis (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22738519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loulou_from_TRAPPIST/pseuds/Loulou_from_TRAPPIST





	Io's mining conflict [EN]

[AIHT, Artificial Intelligence for History Teaching]  
Great mining conflict of Io 2648.

During the era of the great colonization, the four factions gradually established themselves on the different worlds and moons of our solar system, whether for strategic, financial or ideological interest, 25 objects found themselves under the banners of Human being.  
Their distribution was more or less heterogeneous, indeed, the Horizon corporation, exploiting the worlds for their resources, was established on the worlds of a great market value: Mercury, Ceres, Io, Oberon and Pluto.  
As for the Sons of Hephaestus, they mainly settled on the moons of gas giants, notably the moon of Jupiter, Io.

Because you probably know that today Io is shared between the Sons and Horizon thanks to a cross-faction agreement signed on the moon, but this sharing was only posed in ultimatum in view of the events that took place at this time. And we will study it in more detail today.

You should know that since the alliance and the cooperation of the corporation with the Daughters of Gaia, relations between them and the Sons of Hephaestus have been greatly degraded. However apart from a poor mediocre reputation and less consideration on the part of the Sons, the commercial axes, social interactions and exchanges of interest and various goods continued between the two factions.  
It was then mainly mineral resources and building materials sold by the corporation, and this situation seemed to suit both parties. Things evolved in the 25th century when the Sons, then installed on Io, began to resell their mining surplus in order to finance the construction of their infrastructures in orbit. Horizon had very little tolerance for its most important customers also trading resources in the solar system.

The Sons were aware of this embarrassment but did not wish to conflict with their main supplier, their will was innocent, they offered their mineral resources and their sulfur as well as other chemical elements useful for the whole solar system, they even proposed an axis with the colony of Europe, governed by the Daughters.  
The corporation found itself in a weak position, because the sulfur extracted from mines and recovered at the exit of certain active volcanoes are more expensive on the market and is experiencing significant success because it has many applications in different fields of chemistry, engineering and thermophysics.  
Sulfur, in addition to being used to produce a powerful chemical reaction catalyst, sulfuric acid, is also a fundamental ingredient to be used in genetics because it is the basis of two amino acids useful for creating many proteins. It also has uses in the medical field, agricultural, household and in certain personal care.

Horizon then tried to recover part of the resources by proposing the purchase of certain major operating sites, requests systematically refused by the inhabitants of Io. This episode marked the start of growing tensions between the two factions, ranging from false messages to false rumors about the products, and sometimes even sabotage of installations. No response of the Sons was ordered in the face of these affronts, because he knew that his customers were loyal to them and above all, they knew that Horizon was jealous of production, even some of the colonies of Gaia supported the Sons, in anonymity however.

The Sons remained valiant and peaceful for two reasons: Firstly, they knew that it would tarnish the image of Horizon which persisted on them, secondly because it irritated the corporation all the more because its rival did not react, one of the sulfur mine managers will even say this famous quote "ignorance is the worst insult".

However in 2580 a Horizon mothership, more precisely a last generation IV model coming from the factories of Mercury, went into orbit around the Moon without warning. The events suddenly became critical because motherships, and especially those of Horizon are designed to provide for all kinds of situations, whether from food support to higher education, via emergency hospitals and .. a fighting fleet.

The real danger of Horizon ships is their universal modules, they are designed with a central frame to which different specific modules can be attached in a simple and customizable way, granting them universality and adaptation to all situations according to needs. The fear of the inhabitants of Io was that the mother ship was only equipped with crew modules, ships hangar and military equipment.  
The tone adopted by the corporation radically changed in orbit the faction submitted three choices to the Sons: They could choose to leave a few mines to the corporation; Horizon proposed to buy the entire planet at a price technically far above its theoretical market value, or the corporation will appropriates it by force.

This event surprised everyone, even today we are not sure of the trigger of such radical decisions, indeed several reasons make this attitude is counterproductive, open proof of hostility would radically tarnish his reputation and his weight in the faction council, moreover redeeming the whole planet is an absurd and illogical maneuver, finally, the open war would involve the other factions and could prove to be catastrophic because the means involved include all of the large objects in the solar system.

The assumption retained today is the same as that of that time, the director of Mercury took the matter personally and wished to claim the planet, no longer for a financial objective but for a personal objective.  
Whatever the case, the Sons categorically refused all the choices imposed by what was then the invader, the result was not surprisingly the outbreak of a war between the factions, due to the progressive increase in tensions accentuated by sabotages and other indirect attacks orchestrated by Horizon.  
The decision to go to war was finally pronounced by a co-director of Io after Horizon tried to cause an explosion in the spaceport of the capital, a whole section of which was used to transport goods to space. The results were better than expected, the spies had to place 17 bombs in the port to destroy about 48% and make the chain of merchandise unusable. Fortunately, security, which was justly reinforced in anticipation of such incidents and they was able to neutralize 14 of them, the remaining 3 were detonated, destroying two chains of material transport and a heavy transport vship, with the entire crew.  
A death toll of 27 dead and 42 injured and the equivalent of 750,000c of damage. At that moment the situation took a completely different turn, the Sons of Hephaestus declared open war on Horizon.  
At the same time, the authorities of the different worlds of the other factions are warned and receive live broadcasts of the damage suffered by the installations as well as a list of the attacks committed against them.

The response of the Sons was simple, in addition to defending themselves against their aggressors, they wanted to rally the other factions to their cause to help them. Immediately the UNSA requested a meeting of the council, as the Sons set out the facts the list created to assess the penalty against Horizon grew and the representative of the faction could not have the right to speak before the end of the list.

The decisive facts in favor of the Sons were in particular that they are perfectly within their right to exploit and resell the resources of their planet, that they never responded aggressively in the face of aggression and especially that during this period never did they denounced.  
A vote was instituted to decide the future of the faction, the representatives had to choose between the banishment of the faction from the council, which would deprive it of many rights as well as of the treaty of Mars or the conservation of the seat provided see assigning heavy restrictions. The UNSA knew that letting the conflict go on would cause a catastrophy similar to the various world wars encountered on Earth during the 20th and 21st centuries, but in much worse proportions. At the time of the vote, however, the surprise was general when the Daughters of Gaia AND the Sons of Hephaestus voted blank. The Daugthers was the official ally of the corporation, her vote could compromise this precious relationship, however the Sons obviously had no reason to do this, the counselor simply replied with ..

"The Sons of Hephaestus are not mad at Horizon for their affront, we understand the reasons for the decisions of Mercury's director, know that we are simply trying to defend ourselves and protect us from you and I hope you understand it. I do not wish to lose my time here debating our future, for me it makes no sense to decide whether to leave or not, the only thing I want is for you to stop your attack. I promise you that there is no retaliation, the Sons swear by admiration, not destruction."

These few words were enough to leave the counselors speechless, and after a few minutes of reflection, the Horizon representative accepted the sanction and withdrew asking for the cancellation of the attack on Io. The representative of the Daughters nodded and also withdrew, visibly confused by the turnaround. The representative of the Sons asked the adviser to the administration of the nations to also withdraw, the latter closed the meeting.

However things were already too late on the other side of the asteroid belt, the attack of the corporation had already started and the doubts of the inhabitants of Io turned out to be true, the mothership was configured for a planetary scale assault, hundreds of light cruisers were in the process of positioning themselves to attack the mining outposts and heavy interceptors were protecting the mothership.

First impressed by their strike force, the military leaders of the various Sons's moons, called the hammers of Hephaestus, quickly responded by sending their war cruisers to the ship of the corporation, the attack had already been prepared for a long time because the various warships had already mobilized at point L3 of the Jupiter-Io system, hidden behind the planet since the first aggressions of Horizon against the mine facilities. The ensuing battle was fierce, Io's ground defense installations pounded the cruisers in range to defend the mines while the heavy orbiting battleship attempted to pierce the defenses around the mothership. after 20 minutes of conflict, the Girls' hunters also intervened to support Horizon. Called the thorns of Gaia, hunters are designed to neutralize important installations in a short time thanks to their high speed, their stealth system and especially their offensive equipment, mainly composed of EMP allowing to neutralize electrical systems.

The advisers met again in emergency after 50 minutes, the time to be informed of the situation, immediately the adviser of the UNSA accused the representative of the corporation of treason, however he explained that the launch of the operation was already underway by the time the fleet was contacted and that now it is too late to prevent the invasion, only the Girls could still withdraw from the conflict, which they made it after having received the order from their representative.  
The only option then was to watch helplessly the lightning of war fall around Io.

After two hours of massacre, the battle ceased. A catastrophic result with 46% of the soldiers of Hephaestus dead or seriously injured against 78% for Horizon, the fault of the explosion of the storage module of the heavy armament of the mothership which has been cut in half and killed 3/4 of the crew on board. An emergency retreat was initiated by Horizon and the Sons were asked not to follow them, the conflict was over.  
6300 wrecks of ships of all sizes belonging to the three factions floated above the mines of Io and some crashed on the surface, one of the mines was completely rdestroyed and another partially. For the council this victory was not really one, and they themselves did not really know what to do at the time.

After the Io officer contacted the board to report the facts, the decisions finally began to be made. The director of Mercury responsible for the attack was dismissed and sentenced for treason and violation of the treaty of Mars, exchanges between the Daughters of Gaia and the Horizon corporation were interrupted for 2 years, which considerably reducing the financial gain of the faction worlds during this period. Finally, Io was a forbidden access to other factions for 3 years, the time necessary to clean up wrecks in orbit and to rebuild destroyed infrastructures, with the exception of the UNSA which helped the Sons in these tasks to their fresh. A wish of the adviser of the space administration who wanted to feel involved in helping the targets of the conflict, where he could do nothing when it happened.

The last reversal of the situation took place 4 years after the facts, the counselor of the Sons of Hephaestus asked for an audience in order to claim the authorization to include a colony with the standard of Horizon on Io, in order to there bequeath some secondary mines. This surprising choice is justified by the adviser as an act independent of his will, born from a vote and a will of the Inhabitants of Io themselves. They think that sharing resources on this Moon would not only reconnect with the corporation and allow them to forget what happened and give them a second chance, but in addition it would help create a new powerful alliance between the two factions. 

Very surprised, the representative of the corporation hesitated for a long time before decreeing that this initiative could indeed be very beneficial for both parties, and added that personally, it would make him proud to reconnect with the Sons of Hephaestus.  
Naturally some conditions were imposed. Among other things, the Moon would still be the property of the Sons, the colonies bequeathed to Horizon will be under the supervision of the leader of Io, goods imported and exported from the planet will be systematically controlled and the Sons will undertake to build the new cities and outposts of the corporation, but these installations will come back at their expense.

Without hesitation, the Horizon representative accepted, asked to withdraw it and immediately transmitted the new directives to the directors of the various worlds of the organization. This is how the Io mining conflict of 2648 ended, and that is how, in the time of two decades, what were at present the most important space conflict in Human history has given way to a new alliance now at its peak.  
Today with a population of 60 million inhabitants and a mix including 65% of Sons of Hephaestus, 35% of Horizon members, 7% of UNSA refugees and 3% of Daughters of Gaia, Io is a mining moon of the external solar system, revolving around Jupiter and whose tumultuous past has made it possible to raise it to the summit of the interplanetary socio-economic domain, by virtue of it's history and it's resources.

End of the lesson, thank you for your attention.  
[[End of archived document]]


End file.
